Redhawk Spring Swap?

Aqualung · Nov 10, 2023

My .41 Redhawk Hunter has what I thought was a pretty decent DA trigger pull, until I got a S&W Target Masterpiece, which pretty much spoiled me and made me think that maybe improvements can be made in my other DA revolvers.

Many years ago, I'd swapped out the mainspring on my SP101 for a lower power so my wife could fire it DA. I also replaced the rebound spring on my Chief's Special for the same reason.

So, while I was on the Wolff site, I also picked up a "Shooters Pack" that has 12#, 13# and 14# springs (17# is OEM).

Installation seems easy, so I'm not worried about that.

Has anyone else tried swapping out mainsprings on a Redhawk? What were your results? At what point (if any) did you get light strikes?

Thanks.

Aqualung

gnappi · Nov 11, 2023

My .44 Redhawk was abysmal and it was a tightrope replacing the mainspring. Back then the spring kits came three in a pack and were color coded. Too light and I had light primer strikes and or no ignition, and even the heaviest of the three had issues so IIRC I wound up keeping the stock spring in it till I sold it in favor of a model 29 and 629 from Smith.

gunzo · Nov 11, 2023

You'll have to test to find out how low you can go without misfires in both single & double action as misfires will show up first using double action.
It's also advisable to test with different brands of ammo, or primers if you reload as some are harder than others.

seasterl · Nov 11, 2023

Primer shortages forced me to use various brands of primers and that’s when I started getting light primer strikes using the lighter Wolff springs, and I ended up reinstalling the factory spring. In hindsight, if I ever considered a lighter spring in the Redhawk, I’d opt for the longer firing pin offered by Bowen. As a side note, personally, I hated the reassembly process for my Redhawk and find the single-actions easier to work with. So if I reconsidered the spring kit again, I’d send it to a competent gunsmith for the longer firing pin, action work on the sear, timing, lock-up, squaring up the grip frame sides to make custom grips fit better, etc., etc.

EDIT: I love Redhawks and have a special one capable is extreme accuracy and runs great, but my other Redhawk (short-barreled 45 Colt) is the one from which I had the experience described above. I think, generally speaking, the Redhawks excel at hunting or heavy loads (bear defense), but I think the S&W are better for double-action low-power target shooting, and it’s a fair trade-off to equip our wives with whatever handgun they like to help them enjoy their range experience more.

BamaGreg · Nov 13, 2023

I gave up using lighter springs in Redhawks as it always caused me light strikes. Some use extended length firing pins to help (Bowen used to sell them)

Ron IL · Nov 18, 2023

I had a Redhawk and never did like it. Finally traded it off. It busted my knuckle like the Smiths do me. I never did like the trigger in it. It would be a lot better if they put the same trigger unit in it as they do the GP and the Super Redhawk. Those are good triggers and neither one of them hurt my knuckles.